A Student’s Perspective

Through The Reality Project, we have an incredibly unique opportunity to present a counter cultural message about sex and relationships to thousands of high school students in mostly public schools throughout the Portland Metro area.

Because of the nature of the work, we don’t get to share a lot of the stories that come out of these presentations.

Recently however, a teacher from Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie where our Reality Project volunteer Dominic usually presents, said one of her students wrote the following on her end of the year evaluation of the class:

“When Dominic came to visit our class for 3 days, he taught me about the good and bad of relationships and what I should look for. During the time he came, I was having relationship problems. I was very involved with a boy who was involved in sex and the idea of sex. He made me believe that what we had was “special” and that he “loved” me with everything he had.

Before him, I was hurt by someone else who had made me believe the same thing. It broke me down because at the time I was very young, too young to actually understand what the concept of love was.

Dominic and The Reality Project helped me look at my relationship as a whole and gain perspective. I realized my relationship was unhealthy and wanted to talk with the boy about it.

I used the example that I learned through TRP and shared that our relationship was like trying to plant a tree into a small plant pot and that what we had was too much in such a short amount of time.

While Dominic was at my school, he also answered my questions about sex and how you can tell whether the sex you are looking for is true or a one-night stand situation. My problem is I have a hard time with trust and wondering if someone is just with me for sex and Dominic really helped me with understanding all of that.”